Becky Campbell

Army Pfc. Marshall Lane is grateful he survived a bullet wound last year while on a training mission with an Afghanistan military police unit and knows he’s lucky to be alive.
But the 23-year-old Johnson City native hasn’t been able to return to his unit, or a normal life, because that Aug. 13 gunshot wound and the subsequent blood loss left him in kidney failure. To get back to his life, he desperately needs a kidney transplant.
“I’m still at Walter Reed (Army Medical Center), still doing dialysis three times a week. The prognosis is I need a transplant,” Lane said Thursday in a telephone interview.
According to a Facebook page — Prayers for PFC Marshall Lane — set up to help find Lane a kidney, he developed cortical necrosis due to the blood loss after getting shot. He’s been at Walter Reed since November and while there have been several leads on a match, nothing has come through.
As part of the hospital’s Living Donor Transplant program, Lane and his family are hoping someone will be willing to be tested and donate if they’re a match. They also hope if the potential donors don’t match Lane, they would be willing to donate to someone they do match.
Lane, his wife, Amanda, and their son, Frankie, are living in military housing at Walter Reed so he can receive treatment.
“I have doctor’s appointments almost daily. I have formation Monday and Friday” and dialysis three times a week. That treatment to remove fluid his kidneys won’t process on their own is also hard on Lane’s other organs, particularly his heart, he said.
Lane said he hopes getting a transplant will pave the way for him to stay in the military.
Anyone who wants to go through the live donor screening can call Walter Reed transplant coordinator Dr. Nancy Dipatuan at 301-319-2841.You can also contact Lane at marshall.lane365@yahoo.com.
Lane said to be sure to give Dipatuan his name — Marshall Stuart Lane — and that you are willing to receive a packet to be tested as a living donor for him.
Lane said all costs associated with a transplant will be covered by his insurance. “Even if they’re not a match to me, Walter Reed is part of kidney swap and they can donate to someone else,” he said.